WITH temperatures soaring to over 36° Celsius in Zululand yesterday, residents living in the eNseleni to St Lucia strip were dealt a double blow with no water and electricity supply since Sunday.
While planned power outages by Eskom were scheduled in Empangeni and eSikhaleni, residents in eNseleni, KwaMbonambi, Mtubatuba and St Lucia said they were not informed of the electricity interruptions on Sunday and Monday.
The power went off at around 4am on Sunday with intermittent power supply late Sunday night before electricity was restored by mid Monday morning.
‘When we reported the problem, Eskom was not aware of the matter,’ said KwaMbonambi resident Tracey Jonnes.
‘A friend who runs a home food industry has lost a lot of business with most of her food going off owing to the power outage,’ said Jonnes.
However, the northern towns also faced intermittent water supply with residents resorting to bathing in swimming pools and boiling pool water to wash dishes.
‘Our children were unable to go to school on Monday. If we were notified of the power outage, we could make contingency plans but we cannot live without water. We want to know what the problem is, Jonnes said.
Business loss
David Davidson of the KwaMbonambi Farmers and Timber Grower’s Association said their standby generators were not built to run for 48 hours.
‘Having no power is killing our business and hampers everything. There is no proper communication from Eskom. Much of our communication relies on two-way radios. There are fires all over the place and we do not have phones. There are costs involved in trying to maintain an alternative power source,’ Davidson said.
Meanwhile, there were also reports of water cuts at Empangeni, Mzingazi, eNseleni, KwaMbonambi, Mtubatuba and St Lucia with the Lower Umfolozi Regional War Memorial Hospital in Empangeni operating without water during the weekend.
‘How can you run a hospital without water? The nurses were working under these conditions and babies were being born without water. There was no water to flush the toilet,’ a visitor to the hospital told Eyethu Bay Watch.
Hospital PRO, Nompilo Mvubu confirmed that water supply was restored to the hospital on Monday morning.
‘The uThungulu District intervened and assisted with water tankers to ensure that no surgeries or procedures were halted. The hospital is under major construction to improve and expand service delivery to patients in an around uMkhanyakude, uThungulu and Zululand Districts. The construction comes with challenges, which affected our water supply from Friday. We thank all staff for their dedication towards patient care under these circumstances,’ Mvubu said.
